How not to glitterize your flip flops

You know what's boring? Those plain plastic flip flops we all have. You know what's not boring? Glitter! You know what happens when you're impatient to make things pretty? You'll see...

I know, I know, this has been done a MILLION times before on everything from phone cases to heels but I haven't done it yet and Ive been wanting to try it out. I have a pair of plain black flip flops that got pretty faded last summer and they are just begging for a little somethin' somethin'.

These babies were just begging for a make over!

It looked pretty simple. All the directions I found online mixed the glitter into the Mod Podge and then painted the glittery goop directly onto the desired object. I thought I had this in the bag so I stopped reading there. I'm guessing some of these crafty bloggers Ive seen so many times on Pintrest probably give advice on how much glitter to add to your Mod Podge and I would have been smart to take the time to read their helpful advice. Well, lesson learned.

I chose a white diamond dust glitter with lots of blue undertones which made it difficult to tell how much was suspended in the glue. Clearly, I added a bit too much to my Mod Podge which resulted in a goop with the consistency of ricotta cheese. The other thing I probably missed when I stopped reading was the advice to paint thin layers to build the desired glitter level. There's no such thing as a thin layer when your glittery glue is as thick as mud.

just one coat. Yikes!

 I waited as long as possible for it to dry before gooping another layer on there.

the flop on the right has two coats- its hard to see detail but the whiteness sure comes across!

 After the 2nd coat was on I let them dry over night hoping that the white I was seeing would go away. Turns out what I thought was the whiteness of the glue turned gooey was mostly the overload of white glitter I had added.

Here's the finished product; not what I was hoping for but still wearable around the house.

they don't actually look that bad in this picture

you can see where I started to try and pick off the stiff, now-dried glue (on the center of the left flip flop) to see if I could peel it off like you can with Elmers and start over.

 What I learned:

1). add just a little glitter to your Mod Podge to start. You can always add more to the 2nd coating (but you cant take it out!)

2). apply in THIN layers. With a textured surface like mine it may take more thin layers to achieve the glitter affect you are looking to achieve but you should end up with some really nice dimension which was what I was hoping for and didn't get due to the gooey thick nature of the over-loaded glue.

3). its probably a good idea to start out with something you don't care if you ruin for your first try at this. Luckily these flip flops are super cheap and therefore very replaceable but I wish I had started on an older pair first.

I will try this again! Stay tuned for Part 2!